There was a time when Renaldo Ramirez, of Houston, didn't like to cook.

The 50-year-old ate most of his meals at mobile kitchens until he found out food contaminated with tapeworm eggs almost killed him.

"He's scared now. He's scared of any food from outside," Ramirez said through his sister who interpreted for him.

Ramirez is a tile worker who immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador 20 years ago.

"It was a mild headache, but it wouldn't go away," he said. "It was just there and it wouldn't go away with Tylenol."

Doctors at a clinic gave him medicine for high blood pressure. A few days later he passed out and didn't wake up for eight days.

Dr. Aaron Mohanty found a cyst of tapeworm larvae living in Ramirez's brain. If it hadn't been found, the doctor said, Ramirez could have been dead within hours from the disease called cysticercosis. The disease is usually found in rural parts of developing countries with poor hygiene habits. However, Ramirez was the fourth patient Mohanty treated within a few months.

"The cycle starts with a human that's infected with the tapeworm," said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, of the UT Houston Medical Center.

The tapeworm eggs are spread by a human host who doesn't practice good hygiene after using the restroom. An unsuspecting victim then eats the contaminated food, Ostrosky said.

"These eggs hatch in the intestine and go through the gut-wall and into the circulation where they get stuck somewhere," Ostrosky said.

Ramirez's cyst was removed through a small incision. During his recovery Ramirez learned to cook and now prepares his own food.

There have been cases of cysticercosis in South Texas, San Antonio's Metro Health District said, but it is not a major outbreak.

The best way to avoid the disease, doctors say, is to wash your hands, cook meats thoroughly, especially pork, and to wash fruits and vegetables.

In a lot of places, like Mexico, El Salvador, Bolivia, Paraguay, there are street vendors selling stuff like tacos, empanadas, even ceviche and fresh fruit juice.

When I realized that there are few public restrooms, let alone a place to wash up, my appetite for street food went way down.

Something like this could have happened to Mr Ramirez.

Come to think of it, in the lunch wagons that visit construction sites and office parks in the US, where do those employees wash up? Granted most of what they sell is prepackaged and they wear gloves (with no proper glove protocol), but without a sink and hot water they don't wash up any more than the taco stands in Ensenada.

Exact same thing happened to the uncle of a coworker of mine. He bought some sort of pork burrito or something from one of those Mexican carts on the street. I have sworn off pork and am real leery about eating at any restaurant, especially fast food places, since so many hire illegals. Just one more way I, and many other Americans, have had to adjust and adapt because of the illegal invasion.

I think all food service places whether mobile or not should have a sanitary hand washing sink well in view of the customers. If you see someone going towards your food without washing their hands. Go out the door. You never know if someone washes their hands after using the restroom so I for one want to see them lather up.

"real leery about eating at any restaurant, especially fast food places, since so many hire illegals. Just one more way I, and many other Americans, have had to adjust and adapt because of the illegal invasion."

Whoa! Parasitic "worms", whether they be pinworms or tapeworms attach to the INTESTINES and only the INTESTINES!

They are intestinal parasites insiteu, in other words, they don't go to your brain. They will cause you discomfort and weight loss but, in the modern medical environment, they won't kill you and they won't, repeat, won't go to your brain. However, they will come out of your butt. That's when you go to the doctor and get something to kill them. Liberal science urinalists (spelled wrong for effect) only think that because they most always think with the place that the worms come out of, hence the confusion with the brain.

I'm a doctor, and I don't play on on TV.

37
posted on 01/12/2007 3:07:07 PM PST
by timydnuc
(I'll die on my feet before I'll live on my knees.)

The tapeworm eggs are spread by a human host who doesn't practice good hygiene after using the restroom. An unsuspecting victim then eats the contaminated food, Ostrosky said.

Well, Yuch!!!!

And yet you'd be surprised at the number of guys - well-educated professionals - at my workplace who come out of the stall and head right out without washing their hands. Once I saw one of the cafeteria workers do it. After seeing stuff like this, I only exit men's rooms by covering my hand with a paper towel to open the door.

Why you insensitive bigot! (just kidding;) Seriously, we have here appalling evidence of the failure to assimilate immigrants to American culture-first the victim living here 20 years(!) who can't speak English, and the worker who does not comprehend American standards of personal hygeine. Thanks, multiculturalists and liberals!/s

You have reason to be concerned. I've been to too many restaurant restrooms and seen so many come out of the toilet and walk right out without even getting close to the sink. Surely, some of these slobs are involved in preparing and/or serving the food. I've begun to avoid eating out whenever possible since I know that there are lots of food-borne diseases. And it's a bigger problem now that we have more and more immigrants to whom hygiene is a "foreign" concept.

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